William p



(No Model.) I W. P. GOMSTOGK, Jr.

v RAILROAD CHAIR. I Q.2 PWWPQQ: .81138 WITNESSES. INVENTE'JR.

. 1 UNITED" STATES PATENT mot;

WILLIAM r. COMSTOOK, JR.,'OF PAWIUCKET, RHODE ISLAND. I

RAILROAD-CHAIR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 290,2C9, dated December 18, 1883.

Application filed May 7, 1883. (No model.)

' To a whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM P. OoMsTooK,

J13, of Pawtucket, in the county of I Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements. in Railroad-0hairs, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part hereof.

This invention relates to railroadchairs, more especially to those used on railroads having a system of electric signals, and using the rails as a medium of conducting electricity from point to point, as desired, in which case it is necessary that the rails should be so insulated at given pointsas at the end of a block,

so calledthat the electricity shall not pass to.

the next rail, or into the next block; and it has for its-object a device by which the ends of the rails brought together in and held by such chair shall be electrically insulated, the one from the other and each from the metal part of the chair.

A further secondary object of my invention is to deaden the noise ordinarily caused by railroadtrains, owing to the vibrations of sound being freely transmitted from rail to rail and from the rails to the metallic chairs. By my invention the rails are insulated from each other and from the chairs by non-conductors of sound, thus breaking up the continuous vibrations.- Attempts have been here- .tofore made to effect these results by the use of separate chairs for each end of each rail, with an insulating-piece between the rails, as in patent to Frank L. Pope, July 16, 1872, No. 129,425, (electricity-railroad -signals,) and also by the use of a railroad-chair of rubber formed into the proper shape to receive the base of the rails and overlap the upper sides, as in patent to Geo. L. Mack, December 30, 1879, No. 223,052, (deadening noise;) but both these inventions fail to effect the ends therein respectively aimed at as effectively, permanently, and economically as the invention herein described.

Ihave shown one form of apparatus by which my invention may be made of main the accompanying drawings, in the different figures of which similar letters refer to similar parts.

Figure 1 is a vertical cross-section of chair and rail. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal elevation of the chair, including the insulating-piece I and parts of two rails, with a part of. the metallic case of the chair broken away to show the non-conducting apackin g inside of I such case. Fig. 3 is a cross-section through the .line as a: of Fig. 1, showing the corrugations I deem it advisable to have made in that part of the case. I

0 represents the metallic case of the chair, open at the ends, with wings W W forming the top part. of the same, between and below which the base-flange of the rail rests on the insulating-cushion c. To the outside of the case 0 are attached ears E, having holes through which spikes are to be driven to 'attach the chair to the railroad-sleeper. 'gyThe of the rail, .and between the side WillgS,xW W

and the cushion 0. These pieces P P are composed of some elastic non-electric conducting material.

I is the insulating-piece, of the form of a section of the rail and of a thickness desired. I generally'use a thickness of about a half an inch, made of some elastic non electrically conducting material, which is placed between the ends of the rails and insulates them each from the other. I i

BR are-the rails.

Bypreference, I make the upper side ofthe bottom of .themetallic case-O, on which rests the insulating-cushion c, with the beads b 1) running transversely across the linear line of the rails, as shown in Fig. 2, and cut grooves into the bottom of suchcushion to -fit said beads, as indicated in the same figure; to prevent the possibility of cushion c sliding; on such case 0, also, I preferably make the inner or under side of the wings W W corrugated, with corrugations running crosswise with the length of the rail, as indicated at c in Fig. 3, and also with a slight retreating curve as such side attains its nearest approach to" the web of the rail. The insulating-cushion c has a recess in the top, as shown in Fig. '1, and indicated by a dotted line in Fig.2, in'which sets the base-flange of the rails and insulatingpiece'I. '1 The side packing-pieces, P P, I generally make of a wedge shape, and insert them into their respective places in the chair, with the thin part of the wedge on one side of rail pointing in an opposite direction from the thin part of wedge on the other side of rail. The shape of inside of wings \V V may be slightly inclined to suit such wedge shape, as shown by heavy line No. 1 in Fig. 2, and also indicated in Fig. 1, where 011 the right hand is shown the thick end of the wedge, and on the left hand is shown the thin end in section, while the width or thickness of the thick end is indicated by a dotted line. These side pieces may, however, be made of equal thickness throughout their length and forced down onto the rail and cushion c by set-screws or other desired means.

The cushion 0, side pieces, P P, and insulating-piece I may be made of any suitable nonelectric conducting elastic substance, and the less capacity the substance has for conducting waves of sound the better is it suited for the secondary purpose of my invention. I have found a hard elastic wood to be a very desirable material for that purpose.

Though this chair is specially designed for an insulating-chair to be used in connection with an electric signal system, I do not design to be confined to its use in that manner, for I find it to be a desirable chair for use on all railroads. It affords a firm elastic seat for the rails and better means of keeping the rails tightly in place, as they wear down into the cushion 0, than any other cushioned railroadchair to me known. \Vhile the insulatingpiece I serves as a most convenient means to space the rails properly for the allowance for contraction and expansion under the action of cold and heat, its elasticity tends to make it keep the space between the rails filled as the rails alternately contract or expand, and it also tends to prevent the action which all rails have on a railroad where all the trains run in one direction, (as in most double-track roads is the case,) to move longitudinally in the direction toward which the trains run, which action is known among railroad men as the creeping of the rails.

If this chair is used atjoints of rails not intended to be insulated, the rails can be easily connected by carrying a wire from one rail to the other around the chair. In fact, thisisalways done as a precautionary measure where the rails are designed to be connected with the chairs now in use on railroads using electric signal systems. A slight triangular space is left in the packing between the cushions c, packing-piece P, and the lower rail-flange.

This allows for reaction in the packing-piece P as it is driven tighter to press against the rail after the latterhas worn downinto cushion c, and gradually becomes filled by the wood forming itself into that space under pressure. I have shown the piece P with a rabbet or molding coming above the level of the outside edge of wing V. This rabbet fits closely against the web of the rail and of the insulating-piece I, and keeps the latter the more firmly in its place. It also tends to keep the packing-piece P more rigidly in its position, but is not an essential part of my invention.

By this invention, as will be seen, the rails are supported entirely by the elastic non-electrically conducting cushion c and packingpieces (also elastic and non-conducting) P P, no part of the rail touching the metallic portion of the chair, and the rails are also insulated from each other by the elastic non-conducting insulating-piece I. Thus the ends of the rails are perfectly insulated.

Having thus described my invention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States- I 1. The combination, in a railroad-chair, of the cushion c, packing-pieces P P, insulatingpieee I, and an outer shell or casing, 0, combined substantially as within described.

2. As an improvementin rail-chairs, the metallic case 0, having wings V \V, in combination with the cushion c, the packing-pieces P P, and insulating-piece I, all combined and op erating substantially as and for the purpose herein shown and specified.

3. The improved railroad-chair, consisting of the combination of, first, the metallic case 0, with beads b on inside of bottom of the same, and wings \V \V, with their under surface scored by corrugations 0; second, the cushion c, with arecess for receiving the bottom flange of the rail at the top of the same, and grooves to receive the beads 12 at the bottom; third, the packing-pieces P P, wedge-shaped and driven in contrary direetions,asherein described; and, fourth, the insulating-piece'I, shaped like a section of the rails heldin the chair, said cushion c, packing-pieces PP, and insulating-piece I being composed of elastic non-electrically conducting materials, the whole combined substantially as and for the purposes herein described.

VILLIAM P. COMSTOCK, JR.

lVitnesses:

J OSEPII BAKER, Consumes C. PLUMMER. 

